So, I finally got back home. I guess I can’t be called an exchange student anymore, when in fact I’m just back to being old me, which I was kinda during the whole thing.. but then not at all.

I feel like coming back home is like traveling back in time, as in traveling back to before I left. Everything is just as it was the weeks up to my leave. Two of the people who at that point probably were the most important in my life had left, as in moved away. The three small, but yet big, differences since I got back, are that my cat and my dog died.. (I know, it’s being a typical child to grief over a pet.. ) Also a new dog moved into the house.

The bad thing about coming home is that nobody will ever understand what it feels like having two lives. I do have two lives; one that I left in the US, and one that I’ve come back home for. I don’t have any other exchange students in my area, so yeah I’m pretty much on my own again, in a way.

Anyway, coming home I’ve felt homesick, as ironic as that sounds. I miss Illinois and the way-too-hot weather, polka’s, country and all that other stuff.

Since my jetlag has almost worn off, I’ve almost gone back to my regular routines.. which means bedtime should be around now.. Making this short!

I decided before I started this blog, that it was not going to be a blog about my typical daily life and happenings…
Today though was just great. I had some of my dearest Americans around, and realized how much I take for granted..

Lately I have looked forward to leaving to go back home; to see my family, friends and so on.. but what I didn’t realize fully, is that I have it all here. I have got to know a whole other family, who is my second family now, and friends who mean more to me then I ever thought.

Even though I am far away from all the things I used to know, I learned to know something else, something new and different, and words can’t describe how important that is for me.

Just felt like throwing that out there. It’s true what you’ve all heard so many times.. “You don’t know what you’ve got, until it’s gone!”.

I listened to this song today. I love Ingrid’s songs, and I feel that I can relate especially to this one. Being an exchange student, it’s hard to not think this way, I mean who’s to say that everything will be the same when I get home, and that everyone will still be there? I know it’s not the case; friends and relatives have moved to different places already. It sounds like a children’s story, but both my dog and my cat died. People move on, things change a lot in a year and it’s not easy to accept.

I am looking forward to and dreading going home in about twelve weeks. I have experienced so much in these soon to be ten months, at the same time, this has been the hardest year for me. Experiencing this new culture has sure been an .. experience!
Americans are so different from Europeans. Especially Midwesterners compared to North Europeans.

Since I’ve been here, I have had my hard and easier times, and at times also thought that this was a bad idea. Lately though, I have realized there are exchange students that have it far worse than me, I mean a big part of exchange students change hostfamily, just like I did, but others get far worse placements that I got at first, so it’s not as bad as I thought at all.

Pledge and be heard! – is the motto of the amazingly well liked campaign; Spread the word to end the word.

The campaign is about the rights of mentally retarded people, and how we don’t think about it when we throw the word “retarded” around.

I mean, who hasen’t heard a person (mostly silly teenagers) say “that’s retarded!”, or “you’re retarded!”, even though the person is perfectly normal. How would a retarded person, or his/hers relatives feel in this situation?

I have a school teacher, who has opened my eyes for words and their true meanings.

As a resident in a catholic family’s house, I get very much inspired by their traditions.
Today lent starts, and I had no idea what it was, the word mentioned last night. So I googled it, smart as I am, writing “lint”, because I am an absolutely amazing speller. Anyhow, after some research, I figure out the main idea of Lent.

So today, I’ve decided to give up sweets, lactose products (kinda cheating there, because I am lactose-intolerant) and the big time consuming social network FACEBOOK !. That’s right! No more FaceBook for me all the way from Ash wednesday to Easter sunday. So far I have been capable of keeping that promise to myself, but this being the first day, we’ll see how that goes.

I also looked up some things other people have given up for Lent the past years.. For example knife and fork, so this person ate with chopsticks all of Lent, other people give up warm water for their showers…
For me; I’ll just stick with healthy food’s and no FaceBook 🙂

Wander around your apartment in your underwear. Or, if you’re feeling ‘ballsy,’ completely naked! Your girlfriend was the one who always wanted you to “put some clothes on, for god’s sake.” You thought that was counterproductive–she was just going to take them off anyway! Well now’s your chance to feel those hard-to-reach spots get caressed by the winds of freedom rather than by someone who demands you come to every single one of her interpretive dance recitals. Enjoy it!

DO

Watch at least 5 episodes of Entourage or any other show that makes relationships look worthless and singleness seem awesome. Don’t you want to be those guys? Well, if you were dating, you couldn’t be.

DON’T

Watch The Notebook or Love, Actually, or anything that’s not about rampant casual sex or a lot of killing. Be careful. In some of those movies…

Starting to count my posts now! My goal is to reach as high as I can, and I will.

Just got home from a long-lost friend’s. Don’t you like how suddenly, the ones you grew apart with, just happen to reappear in your life like a rainbow after the rain??? I don’t know why I used rainbow, because they’re beautiful and nice I guess.

Not that it has been that much of rain in my life in the beginning of this year, it has actually been bright and warm (cold weather but.. you get me).

I have been wondering, for a while, which posts are more appealing; long or short ones?

I enjoy reading short ones, the long ones are way too time consuming, and if the writer is not fairly skilled, it just gets boring halfway through.

Well this was a short one.. to make it a little more interesting, I’ll throw in a pic of the Arch in St. Louis.